Spavinaw Woman Thankful For Rescuers That Saved Her Life

A Spavinaw woman says she's alive this evening thanks to some daring first responders who came to her rescue when floodwater trapped her in her home.

Pam LaSyone showed us around what's left of her Spavinaw home after flash flood waters washed inside her house - the first time since being built nearly 70 years ago.

“It was like up to here on me,” LaSyone said referencing knee.

Some of her things are destroyed.

“The couch is sopping wet. I can't keep it, it's gonna mold,” she said.

Other, more sentimental belongings, however, made it through.

“Pictures of family, my mom, and dad and aunt. Most of them are gone,” she said.

With the exception of puddles in the yard, the water at LaSyone’s place is gone - but at its highest point Saturday it would have been about four feet high.

“I was frantic and the water, it was like inch by inch it was coming up,” LaSyone.

Video from that day shows water released from Eucha Dam rushing across Highway 82 - just a few hundred yards from LaSyone's house.
She said she was taking a nap when the water started rising and woke up to frantic messages from friends.

“Call me as soon as possible, you're gonna need to leave,” one message said.

But by then it was too late - the only way she could leave would be by boat.

“I couldn't go that way. I couldn't go back this way or that way,” LaSyone said pointing to the only roads surrounding her house. “It was the scariest thing I've ever been through.”

But the scariest part about that day was leaving her animals behind. LaSyone said when the rescuers got to her it was too dangerous to load up her dogs and cats in the boat.

“It was horrible. My heart was just torn in two,” she said.

She said the current was so strong she couldn’t even walk to the boat.

“They put a life jacket on me and I held onto one of them and he said, 'Whatever you do, don't let go.' I had a death grip on him, I was not letting go,” LaSyone said.

And when the water receded, LaSyone returned home to find what she called a miracle - all of her dogs and cats were safe.

“No lost animals - and I thought they were all gonna be gone. I'm amazed and thankful to God for that,” she said.

She's also thankful for the swift water rescue teams who risked their lives to save hers.

“I'm eternally grateful. I didn't get their names but I'm gonna find them out because when they come out like that, they're taking a chance of losing their own lives,” she said. “I just feel like my life was saved that night by them, so I can't say enough good about them. I really can't.”

LaSyone does not have insurance so she will have to pay out of pocket for the restoration.  She’s staying with a friend until her house is livable again.